Plaga Astralis
by alice incarnate
Summary: The adventures of me (Alice), and my friends Justine (Hypothia) and Claire as we run into romance and mischief in our fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. *chapter 9's up! (this thing is getting long...)
1. Potions and Corn

Her eyes were paralyzed. And locked in their view was a nice rounded snapshot of Snape's potions classroom – ancient stone walls and torches placed sporadically, a rather dismal setting. A brilliant, candy-colored stained glass window toward the front of the room swept a beacon of rainbow, faerie-dust sunlight across the face of Seamus Finnegan, the subject of this candid photograph. He was a sixth-year Gryffindor, beautifully nonchalant as he mentally evaporated into the sky, his head poised atop and supported by his left arm, and his right used to take occasional notes… which she should be doing as well – the potions final was less than two weeks away. But Seamus… a much more interesting subject, in her opinion. And yet he was so tragically unobtainable. After all, she was Alice Malfoy – a Slytherin. Slytherins, much less _Malfoys_, did not get involved with Gryffindors.

-"Alice?"… a dangerous, silky voice interjected into her wonderland like a knitting needle into a balloon, painfully and disquietingly, creating a rather unpleasant surprise.

It was Snape. It was the usual teacher thing to do, pick on the ones who aren't paying attention.She'd always thought the practice was rather cruel, and she especially reprimanded herself for not expecting it from Snape, of all people. 

"Alice, what is the homework for Monday?"

She took a moment to regain composure and almost admitted that she had no idea, that she didn't know because she had been ogling that damned beautiful Irish boy for the past hour and fantasizing over how sexy he'd be with blue spiked hair. But she didn't think Snape would take well to such an excuse, and thankfully noticed that Hypothia Swingward, her friend and fellow Slytherin (as well as her brother Draco's current "love interest", which was slightly weird but she'd gotten used to it) had written down the homework on her parchment (adjacent to the repeatedly traced-over phrase "I (heart) Draco").

"The homework," Alice said in a matter-of-fact tone as if to mock him with her luck, "is to write a report on any famous alchemist in history, including a bibliography." (she had always relished the satisfaction in getting back at teachers like that when they pulled their clever little tricks.)

"Very well." he said, with a look that said _I'll get you next time_. "Have a… nice… weekend, class."

The sound of books and papers being shoved into bags filled the room, and it was emptied and a vacuumed flurry of small-talk and flowing cloaks.

…

"God, I _love_ corn!" squealed Alice in delight at the culinary selection at lunch. She grabbed two ears of corn on the cob from the bowl and put them on her plate.

"I think you love something else, too." teased Claire (another fellow Slytherin).

"Yeah," joined in Hypothia. "I saw you staring at that Seamus kid all throughout Snape's class!"

"Who's… Seamus?" Alice did a horrible job at pretending she didn't know.

"Oh, you know very _well_ 'who's Seamus'. You couldn't take your _eyes_ off of him!" Hypothia said mockingly.

"Snape's so sexy when he tries to get people in trouble…" mused Claire. After Hypothia and Alice had stared at her blankly for quite some time, Claire blinked twice, looked around, and said, "What the hell are you looking at?" in a demanding tone.

"Nothing," grinned Alice. "Nothing at all." Claire was prone to mentally drifting off like that, and Hypothia and Alice had become accustomed to it.

**__**

KaBOOM! A noise that sounded like the earth splitting in half and a flash of light that might have been the sun exploding shook the great hall. All eyes turned toward the Gryffindor table, where Seamus Finnegan sat with his wand dangling delicately in his right hand above a goblet of water, his face and hair blackened from the explosion. "Poor kid, I don't think he'll _ever_ get that spell right," said a voice from the Ravenclaw table, near enough that Alice could hear.

"I am _so_ asking that boy out," she declared to Hypothia and Claire, who looked at each other and exchanged amused grins as Alice dissolved into the task of conquering her corn.


	2. Avoiding

It was a cold, overcast Saturday morning and Alice strode briskly through the hallways and corridors of Hogwarts to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was already almost 9:30, but for some reason Hypothia and Claire hadn't woken her up, and by the time she was awoken by her dark gray kitten, Clive, chewing on her fingers with his razor-sharp kitty teeth (he was teething), she was already twenty minutes late.  
  
She pushed open the heavy wooden portal into the hall and sauntered over to the Slytherin table where Claire and Hypothia (next to whom was Draco, hunched over his porridge like a gargoyle) were sitting. Appearing between her two friends, she grabbed a strip of bacon and began gnawing away, greeting them cheerily through a mouthful of fatty pig flesh.  
  
"Alice. are you. okay?" asked Claire, staring at her as if she'd grown a second head.  
  
"Yeah, why?" she responded, pausing momentarily from a slice of buttered toast.  
  
"Well," Hypothia joined in, "you were saying all this really scary stuff in your sleep. that's why we didn't wake you up."  
  
"Yeah, you know you can kill someone if you wake them up too suddenly from a really intense dream," Claire said, reminding Alice a bit of Hermione Granger, the bossy, overachieving sixth-year.  
  
"Well, we were about to wake you up until you yelled something about 'hailing the almighty corn god'. then we decided we'd better let you sleep it off," informed Hypothia.  
  
Things clicked in Alice's mind. "So that explains it!" she exclaimed. "I had this crazy dream that Seamus was wearing this awesome corn-suit, and he took his wand out of his husk-pocket and tried to do a spell, but he got it wrong and his kernels started popping and there was nothing I could do to save him because by then I'd turned into a legless, armless panda bear! Gods, it was horrible!" She had obviously used all her breath to tell the story, and was now hyperventilating and twitching like a disgruntled spider monkey.  
  
Claire patted her on the back, slowly and apprehensively, as one would pet a paraplegic goat that they didn't really want to touch and were only doing so because they felt sorry for it. "Uh, Alice?" she said cautiously, so as not to upset her. "We. uh, think you have some. repressed issues you need to work out."  
  
"Yes, definitely," seconded Hypothia. "This Seamus character is driving you insane. Why don't you talk to him or something; Maybe then you won't have all these crazy kinky fantasies of him in corn suits."  
  
Ah, but it was easier said than done. Alice had never been very good at making friends and talking to people she didn't know. Like usual, she would probably just go on like normal hoping he didn't notice her staring at him and living off of her rampant imagination.  
  
.  
  
Her weekend from then on was relatively uneventful. She spent it mostly in her room when she wasn't in the hall eating because she knew that if she was around Seamus she would only go more crazy trying to overcome her shyness. It was best just to avoid him - that way, at least he couldn't find out because she wouldn't be there to stare at him.  
  
On Sunday afternoon, she lay on her bed dangling her arm over the side for Clive to play with, listening to a Smashing Pumpkins CD through headphones (she had developed a strange affinity for such muggle devices), when Hypothia and Claire barged in, green and silver Slytherin scarves billowing behind them and all, their faces pink from the cold.  
  
"Alice, what are you doing in here all alone?" Claire inquired with a hint of maternal worry.  
  
"Oh." startled, she removed her headphones. "I was just playing with Clive." She reached down and snatched him off the stone floor, holding him up as if to prove that she was telling the truth. "See?"  
  
"Uh. yeah," Hypothia said, shaking her head. "Hey, look. We're going to go play broom tag with some Gryffindors. You can come if you want."  
  
"Oh, um." she didn't really want to go anywhere at the moment, but she looked out her window to see the mist falling in soft curtains and then to her neglected broomstick in the corner of the room. "Who's going, exactly?" she asked, turning her head toward her friends but her gaze was still stuck on the broom.  
  
"We don't really know for sure. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, maybe Neville Longbottom, possibly a few Weaslys?" Claire said, seeming unsure.  
  
"Fine," Alice sighed. She'd been cooped up in that room like a caged owl for almost five hours now, and it was so pretty outside. "Just let me get my cloak and stuff"  
  
"Sure," Hypothia said, "Claire and I'll meet you outside in the lawn over by Hagrid's hut in ten minutes." And with that, they disappeared and the door slammed behind them, leaving Alice alone with Clive once again.  
  
She picked him up tenderly, held to her face and said "Awww. I promise I love you, but I have people-friends too, you know." He pawed her cheek and she kissed his cold little kitten-nose, bouncing him down on the bed. She grabbed her cloak, scarf, mittens, and broom, pulled on a pair of boots and was gone, door slamming behind her. 


	3. Flying

Alice watched the grass go by beneath her feet, little drops of dew suspended on the blades like transparent blood on miniature swords. The ground became gravel and she looked up to see that she had already reached Hagrid's hut. She turned and saw a dozen or so young wizards frolicking in the air amount their broomsticks. Sure enough, there was Harry Potter on his Nimbus 2000; tag with Harry Potter didn't seem much fun to her. no one would be able to catch him. A bolt of red flew past that might have been Ginny Weasley. Two figures landed in the distance and came running toward her. It was Claire and Hypothia, flushed and panting. By the time they had reached her, they stopped to catch their breath for a moment, then Claire gave Alice a sly grin, "Hey, Alice, guess what," she said patronizingly, more stating than asking.  
  
Alice looked at her with very large, confused eyes.  
  
"SEAMUS FINNIGAN is here!" Hypothia burst out, unable to contain herself.  
  
Alice turned, expressionless, back toward where she had come from, somewhat dejected and prepared to leave. But alas, they had already seized her by her cloak and were dragging her toward the others. As if to add to the sense of futility in trying to escape, Claire said quietly, "Come on, if you don't play we won't let you have any more corn."  
  
By then, the rest of the players had landed and were coming over to greet her. Harry, Hermione, Ron AND Ginny. A few others she didn't know. And Seamus. standing back a little way, paler than normal and breathing heavily, taking occasional swigs from a water bottle he produced from his cloak. She was so intent upon memorizing his image that she never even heard the names of the faceless students she was introduced to, and only mentioned a "pleasure" or a "nice to meet you" when it seemed that no one else was talking because they were waiting for a response from her. Someone nudged her from behind and she was pushed toward Seamus. He had noticed her by then and it simply wouldn't do to run away now. He held out his hand to her (in her stupor, she almost asked him what he intended for her to do with it) and said (in a voice that echoed that of the gods themselves). "Hey."  
  
"Hi," Alice said, grabbing his hand and shaking it firmly.  
  
"Seamus Finnigan," he announced (as if she didn't already know)  
  
"Alice." she said, afraid to give out her last name. She knew very well the reputation her big brother Draco had gotten the Malfoy name, and she didn't want that spilling over onto her, especially in front of. him. "Nice to meet you," she continued, the voice inside her head yelling 'Nice? Is that all you could come up with? It's NICE to meet you?!'  
  
"Pleasure's all mine," he said, staring into her soul with watery blue-gray eyes. He was still holding her hand. She was panicking. She didn't know what to do so she simply stood there, absorbing the warmth of his smooth dry hands, allowing him to conquer her with his eyes. And she almost enjoyed the discomfort.  
  
Harry's voice floated over the loose crowd, "Hey, let's start!" Alice and Seamus let go of each other simultaneously, both stared at the ground for a moment wondering if anything more should be said, and grabbed their brooms.  
  
.  
  
After the rules were announced, the players rose into the air and darted about like fireflies, trying to tap one another with their wands (tapping was okay, but no magic was allowed). Alice wasn't really in the mood to get all tired and sweaty, so she flew up toward the clouds and enjoyed the steady mist collecting on her face. She hovered at the level of the highest trees, admiring the view. Admiring life. she could still feel his firm grip on her right hand, and she was still reluctant to touch anything with it for fear that the sensation might rub off. Suddenly, a bold of lighting struck her and for a moment she was paralyzed in a buzz of white light. She turned to see Seamus, staring at her astonished. He looked down at his wand, then back at her and called, "Sorry. Accident!" and smiled. Good god. she almost fell off her broom. She was numb except for the slight tingle in her fingertips from the electric current. from SEAMUS' wand. It was almost as good as if he had hugged her.  
  
Suddenly hit by a surge of enthusiasm and adrenaline, she pulled her wand out of her cloak and looked to Seamus, who grinned slyly and nodded his head a little in approval. Alice grinned back and Seamus took off in the opposite direction. Alice zoomed past hovering, confused tag-players, swished-and-flicked her wand at Seamus and instead hit a tree in the distance. It burst into flames and collapsed into itself in a matter of seconds. Good thing they didn't have that effect on wizards. Alice doubted that Seamus would live up to his sexiness in the form of a pile of wet ash.  
  
The damp air condensed on her face as she sped after him. He turned and flicked his wand at her, but she ducked and the flash of light flew over her head. She aimed and flicked again, this time right on target. He twitched a little and was surrounded by a purple aura, which presently evaporated. leaving him skyrocketing toward the ground at an outrageous angle.  
  
"Oh god, he's going to die and it's my fault," Alice though frantically. She didn't realize the absurdity of her thought processes until after the fact.  
  
He pulled up on the end of the broom with admirable coolness, turned and yelled, "Nice!", making Alice go all warm and fuzzy inside. They flew up over the forest, above the fire-colored fall trees, constantly "accidentally" shooting at each other back and forth with their wands, complimenting one another on their aim or broom handling. Soon they had descended into the forest, dodging dense foliage and waving at unsuspecting forest creatures as they sped by. Seamus was now chasing Alice, somehow, and she wasn't very experienced when it came to flying under such conditions. Moments later, she miscalculated a turn and flew straight into the leaf-carpeted ground. She lay there for a moment, sprawled face-up with an ecstatic smile on her face, her broom suspended in a bush a few yards away. The next thing she knew, Seamus was heading straight toward her at an alarming rate. The smile quickly evaporated from her face and she began to get up, when Seamus crashed to the ground almost on top of her, and together they rolled over in the leaves twice and in the end, he WAS on top of her, either perspiration or precipitation dripping down his wonderful face (she really didn't care which), both of them panting in unison and staring at one another. He was directly on top of her, hands planted on the ground on either side of her head. Alice would have been content with just that. The day's events thus far had been enough to keep her loving life forever. She could feel the damp, crunchy leaves beneath her and in her hair. Seamus had gotten bits of twigs and things all over himself, and a small scratch meandered across his right cheek, the blood just coming to the surface. Neither of them had fully regained their breath, when Seamus suddenly released his arms which had been supporting him above her, falling onto her and kissing her hard, the most wonderful, powerful kiss she had ever had the pleasure of experiencing. She kissed him back, attempting to mimic his passionate forcefulness, and threw her arms around him, wishing she'd never have to let go. 


	4. Breaking

"So what exactly happened between you two in the forest last night?" asked Claire suggestively, grinning like a Cheshire cat with her head in her hands and elbows on the table at breakfast the following morning. She was sitting across the table from Alice and Hypothia, who was sitting next to Draco as usual. Alice shot her a glare that was filthy with severe implications, and cocked her head toward Draco. If he found out about her and Seamus. she shuddered at the mere though.  
  
Claire took the hint and covered up with some irrelevant comment pertaining to the rafters.  
  
Draco was busy talking to Marcus Flint, who was seated to his right. Hypothia leaned over to Alice and said, mutedly, "You KNOW it doesn't take an hour for someone to pick up their broom and fly out of a forest, so you're going to have to come up with a better explanation."  
  
.  
  
In potions class later that day, Alice purposefully sat across the room from Seamus, even though the seat next to him was empty. She didn't want any rumors getting around - her father would have an absolute FIT (kicking, screaming and all) if he found out that his beloved daughter was engaging in little rendezvous in the forest with some mixed-blooded Gryffindor boy. Lucius Malfoy, and most Malfoys actually, despised wizards and witches who weren't of pure heritage. Alice? She thought that was a lot of codswallop. Additionally, she was astonished by herself in general. Looking back on the previous day, she felt as if she'd become a different person for that short time. Such reckless spontaneity was so unlike her.  
  
All throughout class, Seamus threw glances her way with those eyes the color of fog over the ocean that had a tendency to make her be born again as a new person every time she met them with hers. He looked so hurt, and yet she focused on her potions work instead of appeasing him with even a sideways glance. Looking at him made her feel as if she'd kicked a stray puppy.  
  
When class ended, Professor Snape called Claire to help him with something in the storeroom (an occurrence that had become almost commonplace by then), leaving Alice stranded with Hypothia and Seamus, who had drifted toward her like a magnet. Sensing the hostility, Hypothia glanced at Alice understandingly, with a look that said 'this is for your own good', and walked away.  
  
Once she was out of earshot, Seamus turned to Alice, the pain still blatantly obvious in his expression. (You could read him like a billboard) "What's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"I. don't know," she confessed. She really wasn't good at maneuvering conversations such as these, but she'd been trying to improve so she added, "I just wasn't myself yesterday."  
  
"Who were you, then?"  
  
"Well." she began to ponder the deeper pretenses behind her situation, but stopped herself when a look of playful victory spread across his face. "Look," she said. "It's just not like me to do things like that. I'm. Alice MALFOY. I'm not LIKE that."  
  
"Like. what?" he asked, now with an expression of horror. "Like anything other than what your family TELLS you you are?" She had expected him to be more surprised over the fact that she was a Malfoy, but he acted as if he had known all along.  
  
She couldn't resist him any longer. She adored the way he wore his emotions on his sleeve. He was so open, so. free. She stared back at him. He was looking at her demandingly, trying to decipher her, pushing all her buttons to try and figure out which ones worked. Noticing the thin, maroon across his cheek caused her to flash back to yesterday. She felt the freedom return momentarily - the sense of liberation and elation. And it scared her, so she shoved it back to where it had come from. HE was beginning to scare her - the way he read her, the way he seemed to know her better than she knew herself. and they had only met the day before and never even exchanged words beyond casual greetings. She felt violated, and yet more attracted to him than ever. There was so much more to this "damned beautiful Irish boy" than she could have ever imagined. 


	5. Sneaking

Alice didn't go to dinner that night. She was far too preoccupied to think about eating, so instead she simply sat in a huge green velvet armchair in the Slytherin common room with Clive on her lap, trying to study her potions notes but being constantly distracted by the fire burning brightly before her. She felt disconnected, but in the sense of being numb, rather than free. Potions seemed the least of her troubles at the moment, and she let the papers fall from her hands and flutter to rest in a sparse collection on the plush emerald rug below, Clive hopping down clumsily to try to catch them. Everyone else had gone up to the Great Hall, so she was left alone and took advantage of the erie silence in a place that was normally vibrant and alive with awry spells, nervously studying students, and such... Laying down on the monstrous chair (it was almost big enough for her to fully recline in), she let the warmth of the flames wash over her. She shut her eyes, felt her kitten cuddle up next to her, and fell asleep almost instantly.  
  
Moments later, she was awoken abruptly by the sound of the door opening at the end of the hall and, assuming that it was her fellow Slytherins returning from dinner, she quickly collected her notes from the floor and straightened herself up, prepared to act as if she had been studying all along. However, she heard only the echo of a single pair of footsteps and looked up to see that it was none other than Seamus Finnigan walking toward her and looking around and seeming interested in everything as though he was in a museum. "Seamus?" she asked, confused.  
  
"Oh..." his trance was broken. "Hey."  
  
"What the HELL are you doing here?!" she demanded almost defensively. wow she thought to herself, I'm turning into my brother! "Sorry... I mean, why aren't you at dinner... and how did you get in HERE?" she revised her previous statement.  
  
"Well, I noticed that you weren't at dinner so I asked your friend Claire and she said you were still in your dorm. I was just worried, you know... the conversation we had after potions and everything. Sorry if I got too personal," he slowly faded into a whisper. Clearing his voice, he continued, "I just don't want you to think I don't like you or anything..."  
  
"Oh no, it's not that. I was just... tired," she lied. Covering up for her vulnerability, she shot back, "And what if i WAS in my dorm, huh? Would you have just marched on down to the Slytherin girls dormitory and barged in on me? I doubt you're even allowed in the Gryffindor girls dorm..."  
  
"You know, you're beginning to take after your brother, Alice," he said, almost disappointed at her response.  
  
"I know..." she agreed. "Disgusting, isn't it."  
  
They both giggled a little, and when their amusement had subsided Seamus walked over to her and sat down on the floor below her chair. Pulling out a golden-yellow lump of something from his cloak, he handed it to her and said, "Cornbread... I figured you'd be hungry and Claire said you had a thing for corn."  
  
"Yeah...heh, thanks," she snatched it from him and took a bite, smiling as big as she could without opening her mouth when the image of Seamus in a corn suit returned to her imagination.  
  
"What's so funny?" he asked, playfully.  
  
"Nothing... you," Alice relented, giggling. She stood up and handed Clive to him. "By the way, this is Clive." The two boys played together like siblings, and Alice watched, fascinated, until she became jealous that her... whatever Seamus was to her... was paying more attention her her cat than he was to her. She grabbed her cat away from Seamus.  
  
"Hey!" he shouted, annoyed. He had gotten thoroughly engrossed in her precious little kitten. "Er... sorry."  
  
"It's okay," she said, staring into his eyes as if they were pools of water and she was searching for something she'd accidentally dropped into one of them. She set Clive down on the ground because he'd been wanting to chew on a particularly tasty-looking tassel at a corner of the intricately embroidered rug for a while now, and she thought that this was about the right time to get him immersed in something that would keep him busy for a while.  
  
Seamus reached toward her face and pulled a stray strand of hair behind her ear with his finger. Alice felt her stomach roll over excitedly. He's crazy... she repeated over and over in her head, trying to convince herself that it was a bad thing. He stared at her for a moment, then brought his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her lips to his for a short, soft kiss. She pulled away suddenly, looked down at her hands which were clasped together in her lap, the silent room, candles burning everywhere, Clive gnawing at the tassel... Seamus staring at her eagerly, his mouth slightly open. How could she resist? She moved closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her. After searching his eyes for a second longer, she leaned in for another of his passionate kisses, unclasping his cloak from around his neck (she wasn't going to go any farther than that, she SWORE). For a moment it was only them, together, lost in the forest again...  
  
...then the echo of voices from the hallway. "Shit..." she muttered, pulling away from him. Fortunately, only Claire and Hypothia had managed to walk in soon enough to see them sitting on the floor, still in one anothers' embrace, staring horrified into the hallway.  
  
Grinning and chuckling, Claire said quietly, "I should have known," placing her hands on her hips as if to imitate a teacher or someone more important who might have walked in on them. Hypothia was paralyzed with laughter. "You'd better hide him (she pointed at Seamus, who was staring at her, terrified) quick, before the others get here."  
  
Suddenly hit by reality, she leapt up and handed him his cloak forcibly, grabbing his hand and running downstairs to her dorm. Throwing the door open and slamming it shut behind her, she shoved him under her bed and hopped under the covers, prepared to act as if she'd been taking a nap... her heart was beating so loudly that she was almost afraid it would betray her.  
  
The door creaked open and Claire, Hypothia and three other girls who shared the dorm walked in. "Maybe she's SICK or something!" said Hypothia, a few decibels louder than normal to be sure everyone could hear.  
  
Claire walked up to the side of Alice's bed to perpetuate the masquerade, placing her hand on Alice's forehead. "She's AWFULLY warm... she MUST be sick! She wouldn't have missed dinner for any OTHER reason." (Alice almost laughed out loud at the inside joke)  
  
"Oh, of COURSE not," answered Hypothia.  
  
Afraid they were going a little over the top, Alice pretended to wake up. She sat up in bed, stretched her arms out, yawned dramatically, and announced in the sleepiest tone she could manage, "Oh, I had the most WONDERFUL dream!"  
  
--------  
  
*by the way. if anyone knows how to get italics and indentations and things to upload right, please let me know. in microsoft word, it doesn't work if I save it as HTML (says the file is empty) so I always just save it as a .doc file. somehow I got it to work for the first chapter but I don't remember how. 'tis very frustrating. 


	6. Returning

Alice was running aimlessly through a dense carpet of daisies and tall grass, the sun warming her face. She could feel the dew from the flowers on he ankles as she ran past. A pink bunny-shaped cloud floated by overhead. She inspected it for a moment, then leapt up and grabbed it by the leg. It kicked a little with its free leg and tried to hold on to the sky with its front paws. Alice tugged harder and the cloud-bunny was torn free. She fell back into the daisies, held it with both arms, and bit off one of its ears.  
  
"Mmmm. Raspberry." she thought, delighted, her mental musings somehow echoing around the hills and bouncing between the moon and the sun and returning to her ears.  
  
"Alice!" she thought she heard he name being called from very far away, but she wasn't sure. She released the raspberry rabbit and it hopped, badly shaken, whimpering and earless, back into the sky. Sitting as still as she could, she listened carefully, slightly annoyed by the rabbits laments. "Alice!" she heard it again, closer. Looking out across the vast, sun-drenched valley before her, she saw a large brontosaurus wading through the waves of green. The slight breeze rippled the grass across the meadow, and it looked directly at her from a mile or so away, calling her name again. This time it seemed to come from everywhere, all around her, at the same time. She shut her eyes tight and clamped her hands over her ears in an attempt to escape the omnipresent ringing, like a monstrous church bell in perpetual motion less than a foot away from one's ear.  
  
And then there was silence. Silence, and darkness. She opened her eyes apprehensively and was startled to see Seamus sitting on the bed next to her, leaning over her and staring into her eyes. Even in the moon bathed darkness she could have recognized him even if only by his eyes - the perfect shade of blue, diluted in color but not definitely not in content, laden with things to be known and experiences to be taken part in.  
  
"Alice," he said softly, barely audibly (So HE was the brontosaurus). It was a statement. A firm one, at that.  
  
"Yeah," she answered, rubbing her eyes and clearing her throat.  
  
"I've been under the bed for an hour. I almost thought you'd forgotten about me," he whispered, his words accompanied by that signature smile that made her want to eat him as she would a cookie or a cake or something yummy of the sort.  
  
"Aww, I'm sorry." she sat up and gave him a hug. She would have taken any excuse to comfort him. He hugged her back and kissed her neck softly, petting the back of her head with his right hand. He tucked a strand of her straight, dark blond hair behind her ear and whispered even quieter than before, "I love you."  
  
Peeling him off of her, Alice looked into his eyes and stated, almost mockingly, "Do you, really." with a slight, indecipherable smile. Seamus didn't respond, but looked at her with a sort of inquisitive understanding, as if he had suddenly realized something that he hadn't before. "Hey, I really better get back to my dorm. Things are suspicious enough already without me sneaking out at night," he grinned.  
  
Alice smiled and got up to follow him. She was still in her school uniform, and she grabbed her cloak from off of the headboard of her sturdy dark wooden bed.  
  
"Oh, are you coming too?" he asked, fastening his cloak around his neck.  
  
"Of course I am! I got you into this whole mess, didn't I?" Alice asked, demurely.  
  
"Well actually." said Seamus matter-of-factly. "I was the one who snuck into YOUR dorm.  
  
"And I hid you under MY bed," Alice retorted.  
  
"Okay, fine. It's all your fault," he said playfully, pulling her toward him and stroking her hair.  
  
.  
  
Moments later, they were standing in front of a portrait of a rather large woman, who presently asked for the password and eyed them suspiciously. They were both a little shy about doing anything in front of her, even if she WAS only paint on canvas, so they simply hugged and said their good-nights. Seamus disappeared into his common room and Alice tiptoed back to the dungeon. Coming to a large expanse of bare stone wall, she whispered the password "pure-blood" and it slid open, seeming to make more noise than usual. Feeling quite pleased with herself, she allowed a smile to spread across her face as she entered the Slytherin common room for her second time that night. The smile dissolved, however, when she was unpleasantly surprised to see a figure sitting in the very same armchair she had occupied earlier that evening. As he turned to look at her, she saw that it was one other than her brother Draco, quite possibly the last person she'd want finding out about her thing with some "mudblood" Gryffindor boy, save her father Lucius. His mouth curled into a devious, toothy grin (sometimes she wondered what Hypothia saw in him, anyway) "And what have YOU been up to, baby sister?" he asked insidiously, the firelight and darkness colliding on him and painting him in dramatic shadows as if he stood at the front-line of some cosmic war. 


	7. Sleeping

*NOTE - I've realized a big mistake I made in the first few chapters. I put Seamus in Alice's potions class, but he's a sixth year and she's a fifth. Oops. well, I'm not going to go back and change it because this is all just for fun anyway, but please use the willing suspension of disbelief. That is all :c)  
  
  
  
"Draco," Alice replied coldly. "I should have known."  
  
"Not running off with any mudblood Gryffindors, I assume?"  
  
"Of course not," she answered without hesitation. One thing she prided herself in was her ability to lie masterfully and believably when necessary. "Just off on a little walk. couldn't sleep because I slept all through dinner, you know."  
  
"Ah," he said sarcastically. "So THAT explains the guy I saw you leaving with a half an hour ago. It makes PERFECT sense to me now." His disregard for her was sickening. But she supposed it was the expected behavior of an older sibling.  
  
"You must have had one too many glasses of pumpkin juice, because I left ALONE," she said sniffed, knowing that the key to making a lie seem valid was to act as though you believed it at ALL costs. With a triumphant "Hm!", she turned away from him and walked haughtily out of the room, gone in a flash of flickering, fire-lighted strawberry blond hair.  
  
.  
  
Alice woke up tired the next morning. All through the night she had been debating with herself - first euphoric and oblivious with thoughts and fantasies of Seamus. and once she had finally began to drift away into a pleasant sleep, she was interrupted by the harsh reality - Draco KNEW. No matter how well she could lie, he knew. and even if she could cover it up temporarily, she knew the truth would surface sooner or later. It always did, and it therefore would not do for her to continue lying to herself.  
  
She sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep (or lack thereof) from her eyes, yawning rather loudly. At the present moment, she had no desire whatsoever to do anything but sleep all day - sweet, innocent sleep. Sanctuary from the torments of waking life. Simplicity. OH GOD. she fell back onto the bed, welcoming the caress of the silken sheets and warm, cloudy down comforter, cool against her skin.  
  
The other girls were already getting dressed, shoving homework into bags, buckling shoes. "Alice! Wake up!" came a voice from across the room. Claire.  
  
"Yeah, hurry up or we'll leave without you!" Hypothia.  
  
"Just let me sleep. I'll meet you guys in first period." she manage to say, but the very effort of speaking drained her energy and even the sound of her own voice irritated her ears. Remembering something important, she called "Claire!" with the last of her breath.  
  
"Yeah?" she came up beside the bed, looking at Alice concerned.  
  
"Tell Seamus I'll see him later. Don't give him any more. ideas," Alice smiled weakly and Claire chuckled, "Sure."  
  
.  
  
After a nice nap (she'd been making quite a habit of these lately), Alice woke up at least slightly more energized. She rolled off the bed and got dressed and ready in less than ten minutes (another thing she prided herself in was her talent for getting ready quickly, unlike most girls.). Giving Clive a kiss on the nose, she was gone - walking purposefully to Professor Snape's potions class.  
  
Most of her classmates were already seated and ready for class, with parchment and quill pens prepared for notes. Toward the right side of the room, Claire sat with her chin in her hand, staring dreamily at Snape, who was heating up some jars of multicolored liquids over a small portable fire. Taking the seat next to her, she waved to Hypothia, who was seated a few rows back next to Ginney Weasley.  
  
Claire came out of her trance, almost knocking over her little bottle of ink that had been dangerously close to the edge of the table in the first place. "Oh, hey Alice. have a nice nap?" she asked, and then, pulling a piece of paper that had been folded several times out of her bag and handing it to Alice said, "Seamus told me to give you this."  
  
Alice snatched it eagerly, like a hungry squirrel would, having had a nut dangled before its eyes. Unfolding it, she saw black letters scrawled across the page, uneven spaces between the lines. She realized that she'd never seen his handwriting before, and examined it more carefully. It was something between cursive and printed letters. he crossed his Z's and sometimes let the tails on his Y's and J's extend down a little to low, as if he'd simply forgotten to pick up the pen. He had obviously been rushed - the lettering was a little sloppy and stretched out, with little drips of ink splattered throughout. 'Its beautiful' she said to herself, knowing that it was one of those letters she'd keep for a while, regardless of what it had to say. After the handwriting analysis, she finally read it:  
  
Alice-  
  
You're not at breakfast. and I was so looking forward to seeing you. I wake up  
  
happy because of you, you know that? Well anyway, Claire says you were just  
  
tired, and no, I'm not allowed to visit. As much as I'd like to, I don't' thing it would  
  
be wise even if she had said I could. I'm doing an herbology project with your  
  
brother today (I must admit, I'm not exactly looking forward to the "quality time.")  
  
I guess I'll see you at lunch then, and if you're not doing anything after classes  
  
today, I was wondering if you'd want to go do something with me. I guess I'll talk  
  
to you later about that.  
  
I really do love you.  
  
-Seamus.  
  
  
  
Ahh. if THAT didn't give you the warm fuzzies, chances are NOTHING could. thought Alice to herself, folding the paper up smugly and unaware of the smile spreading slowly across her face.  
  
.  
  
After Snape's class (lots of boring notes, review for the final, nothing incredibly interesting except when some Slytherin boy in a back row accidentally dropped his wand and turned his chair into a giant sea turtle for a moment, until Snape turned it back.) As usual, Claire stayed behind to help him "put some things away" in the storeroom, and Alice and Hypothia began to walk toward the greenhouses for herbology. Alice, for some reason, was particularly fond of this class. maybe because all the hands-on practice was a nice contrast to Snape's boring notes. She often go so immersed in her planting projects that she stayed through the break following second period to finish them up. Professor Sprout had even had a mandrake named after her, shortly before it was sliced up for use in some potion.  
  
As they reached greenhouse five, they joined their classmates in a huddle around Professor Sprout, who, seeing that all her students had arrived, began her daily lecture about what they would be doing in class that day, and what not to touch if they wanted to maintain their original number of appendages. (Claire had Defense Against the Dark Arts second period. and although she didn't attend the class regularly, she seemed to believe that her little rendezvous with Snape should qualify her for full credit.) Devenoming poison dart flowers today. 'Hmm.' thought Alice. 'Sounds like fun.'  
  
They got into pairs and were each given a pair of leather gloves that extended almost to their elbows and a pair of clear plastic safety goggles. Alice and Hypothia waked shyly over to their flower. It was huge, larger than Alice's head, and its petals seemed to have every shade of purple in them somewhere. Its thick stem, as big as a rather large person's leg, was coated in curly tendrils and tick, waxy dark green leaves. It had a hulking posture and seemed to be breathing heavily, swaying back and forth menacingly. A strip of duct tape covered its. mouth (although Alice was sure that wasn't the technical term, it sounded right somehow) and it seemed very eager to have this removed. Alice had just began to put on her gloves when she looked up to see that the tape was gone, and the flower was facing directly at her, it's stem arched and the tart in its center plainly visible, its sharp point glittering in the filtered sunlight. The next thing she knew, she was hit in the left shoulder by something sharp, and she spun around just in time to notice a cloaked figure running off outside the greenhouse. She fell to the cold, wet concrete floor and blacked out before she could even manage to ask Hypothia why she'd taken the tape off. 


	8. Waking

*NOTE - hooray, it's chapter 8. This one's kinda long, but bear with me. Lots happens in this chapter. Once again, if anyone knows how to get italics and underlines and things to save, please let me know.  
  
.  
  
Alice felt s if she was floating in a void among the stars. Occasionally she'd wave to a spacecraft cruising by, but mostly she just floated, naming starts and making up constellations, playing connect-the- dots with them and having conversations about what it's like to be a star, hovering in space a million light-years from your closest neighbor . . . but then after a long time, or none at all, (time stood still in the void, so she couldn't be sure) the stars disappeared, leaving her in blackness and the emptiness was washed away in bright warmth - the sort that turns blackness slightly red. When she opened her eyes, it took her a few moments to get accustomed to the garish sunlight pouring in through some orifice to her left. She felt as if she'd never seen anything but darkness.  
  
By the time she realized that she was in bed in the hospital wing and that it was around nine or ten or eleven in the morning (judging from the position of the sun), she had also noticed a number of other things - such as the thick gauze bandage around her left upper-arm, the IV in her left wrist, and the pile of treats, stuffed animals, and cards that created a warm, colorful contrast to the sterile white bed. She felt as if she hadn't eaten in weeks and eagerly grabbed a box of Bertie Bott's Every- Flavour Beans. Normally she avoided them as a general rule (the risk just wasn't worth taking when there were tomato-flavored ones involved), but today . . . today she felt lucky. She grabbed a yellow one a popped it in her mouth. . . corn! Today was going to be a good day. She sorted through the pile, pleasantly surprised that so many people had cared enough to send things. There were cards and candy from Hypothia and Claire, a teddy bear from Draco. . . a friendly note from Professor Sprout saying that after all Alice had gone through, she surely deserved highest marks on the poison- dart flower assignment. There was homework from Snape (he sure knew how to brighten sick children's spirits). . . and (her heart skipped a beat) a letter from Seamus. She could tell it was his by the writing. She loved the way he wrote her name. . .  
  
She opened the envelope slowly and carefully, wanting the feeling to last as long as possible, torturing herself with the suspense until she felt she would explode if she had to wait one mores second to read it. Finally deciding that the exploding was best left to Seamus, she gave in and read it.  
  
Alice-  
  
I'm so glad you're getting better, and sorry about the dart- flower accident. I need  
  
to talk to you about that right away - there's something you need to know. But all  
  
that can wait until you're well. You could have died, you know. . . I was really  
  
scared. I can't wait for you to be up - come see me as soon as you can. I miss  
  
you!  
  
-Seamus.  
  
  
  
No "I love you"? Alice had to admit she was a little disappointed, even though she knew it was too early to be saying things like that. She wanted to see him. 'NOW!' a voice screamed inside of her (but maybe that was just her tummy telling her to get something to eat). Of course, she couldn't very well go pulling the IV out of her arm and running around the school in a little paper hospital gown. . . Just that moment, Madame Pomfrey walked in, carrying a tray of bottles in various shapes, sizes, and colors.  
  
"Oh, you're up! Wonderful!" she said cheerily, sitting down on a stool beside the bed.  
  
"Uh. . . Madame Pomfrey? When do you think I can. . . er. . . leave?" Alice asked timidly, and then added, realizing that she sounded a little rude, "Not that I don't LIKE it here or anything. . ."  
  
"Well of COURSE you don't like it here - it's the hospital wing! And you can leave as soon as you take this," she said, mixing different amounts from each of the bottles in a small plastic cup. Eventually it started bubbling and turned a bright, syrupy shade of reddish-orange. "Here you go, hon - drink up!" she said, handing it to Alice.  
  
She eyed it suspiciously. A little fizzy, smelled something like cherry soda but with some sort of bitter overtone. Couldn't be THAT bad. Downing the contents in a quick sip, she reassessed her opinion. It tasted like acetone and gave her a sort of numb burning sensation in her mouth and down her throat. Observing the obvious distress on Alice's face, Madame Pomfrey handed her a glass of water, which she downed in one big gulp. "Thanks!" she said, not quite sure whether she should be thankful or not.  
  
"Well, you're free to go now. All the venom's been neutralized so you should be fine, I'll just go get your clothes," said Madame Pomfrey. "Your friends brought you up a clean pair."  
  
"Uh. . . Madame Pomfrey? What day is it?" Alice asked sheepishly.  
  
Giggling slightly patronizingly, she replied, "Oh, it's Saturday! You've been unconscious for five days, since Monday. Lots of your little friends came by to visit, as you can see." She waved over to the pile of gifts.  
  
Alice smiled and Madame Pomfrey went to get her clothes, returning with a neat pile which she placed on the stool. She gave Alice one last sweet smile, then left the room, closing the heavy wooden doors behind her. Alice walked over to the huge cathedral window on the left side of the room, admiring the view from the tower. Although she normally felt most at home when it was raining, she had to admit that it was a beautiful day. The sun hovered above the horizon, pouring light across the green valleys and hills, highlighting the tallest trees of the forest. She returned to the stool and put on her clothes thankfully, wondering how long it had been since she had last bathed, slightly paranoid about what they might have done to her while she was unconscious. Pulling on the jeans and t-shirt, she stretched out her arms and hopped around a bit, loosening up her stiff, unused joints. When she felt like herself again, she gathered up her things and went down to her dorm, confronted about six times concerning her "epic battle" with the poison-dart flower. She was even asked once if she thought 'he-who-must-not-be-named' was behind it. Ah, gossip thrived at Hogwarts. . .  
  
After freshening up a bit, her next priority was finding Seamus. As she was leaving the Slytherin common room, she ran into Claire and Hypothia and they exchanged hugs and got Alice caught up on the latest events of the past few days. Since Alice had missed the potions final, Claire had "convinced" Snape to give her a few more days to study for it.  
  
Alice then asked if either of them had seem Seamus recently. "I really need to talk to him."  
  
"Oh, yeah. . . SURE. You need to 'talk' to him. I get it," said Hypothia, elbowing Alice playfully and winking rather exaggeratedly.  
  
"No. . . I really need to talk to him," responded Alice, somewhat annoyed.  
  
"Yeah, uh huh. You go 'talk' to him then," (wink, nudge) said Hypothia.  
  
Claire rolled her eyes and giggled. "He was here about an hour ago asking about you. Said he'd be in his common room and asked me to tell you to go tell the portrait you wanted to see him, in case you woke up."  
  
"Thanks," said Alice, making a conscious effort not to start running. She finally made it to the Gryffindor portrait and told the woman that Seamus had asked Alice to come meet him. The portrait turned around and called his name, and the door opened moments later. Seamus appeared, as wonderful as ever, wearing a pair of well-worn jeans with a hole in the right knee and the cuffs torn up, a studded belt, black chuck taylors and a red-and-blue striped t-shirt that he'd probably had since he was ten. It was far too small on him but Alice didn't mind (quite the opposite, in fact). The scratch on his cheek had healed and was now only a thin, pale scar. His hair was in a state of beautiful disarray. It looked as if he'd simply put gel in it then rubbed it around a little. The most startling aspect was that it was now a shade of bright cobalt blue. And she was even more attracted to him than ever, probably because she'd been deprived of him for so long. When he saw her, he smiled bigger than she'd ever seen him smile before and gave her a huge hug. She hugged him back, smiling almost as big.  
  
"I'm so glad to see you," he whispered into her ear.  
  
"Me too," she replied. "But what happened to your hair?"  
  
"Oh. . . yeah, this was a little spell gone wrong. Does it look okay?" he asked, concerned, suddenly looking very self-conscious, something Alice had never seen him as before.  
  
"It's fine!" she giggled. "I like it a lot, actually."  
  
"Well that's good. . . because I can't figure out how to turn it back," he confessed. "Hey, let's go somewhere. I need to talk to you," he said, stepping back, holding her hands in his, and looking into her eyes.  
  
"Sure," she said. Gods, he was wonderful. . .  
  
. . .  
  
They walked out into the field where they had first met and sat down on the grass, looking up at the sky for a while. He pulled her toward him, into his warm embrace. She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, until he leaned down and kissed her lips - a favor which she gladly returned. After some time, Seamus broke the kiss, looked at her for a long time and said softly, "You're really beautiful, you know that?"  
  
Alice broke her gaze and looked down at the grass, sighing almost disappointedly. Looking back up at him, she said, "Don't say things just because you know they're what I want to hear."  
  
He smiled at her proudly and hugged her. "This is why I love you, Alice. You're not like most girls," he said into her ear. "You're. . . you're wonderful."  
  
Alice could have just melted in his arms. Instead, she replied, "I think I love you, Seamus. . .", as if she'd finally been defeated.  
  
"Oh come on. It can't be THAT bad." He turned to look at her and brushed a strand of hair out of her eye, kissing her on the cheek.  
  
"Shut up!" she said playfully, pushing him away while at the same time kissing the tip of his nose.  
  
"No, YOU shut up!" he said, knocking her softly onto her back. He leaned over her and they kissed for quite a while, until Alice suddenly sat up, wiped off her mouth, and announced, "Okay, this is getting corny."  
  
"Couldn't agree more," said Seamus, straightening his shirt out. "Shall we move on to something that actually advances the plot?"  
  
"Good idea!" agreed Alice, fastening her bra (No! just kidding. . .) "Now, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"  
  
"Oh, right. Listen, on the same day and at the same time that you had herbology on Monday, I was in the greenhouse next door with Draco, working on that project I told you about. Well things were going just fine until all of a sudden he started asking about you. I said we were just friends, but he kept insisting that he knew we were more than that and that we'd better end it or he'd tell your dad. So I said that he didn't have the right to choose your friends for you and he got all pissed off - put on his cloak and ran out the door like a five-year-old. Next thing I knew, there were screams coming from next door and I went over to see what was going on. You were lying on the floor with that dart in your arm and I helped carry you up to the hospital."  
  
"So. . ." Alice said, piecing together the puzzle, "you think Draco had something to do with. . . this?" she asked, nodding her head at the bandage on her arm. Then she said to herself, "That WOULD explain the person I saw running away. . ."  
  
"Maybe," he said quietly. For the first time ever, she thought she heard fear in his voice, and she was scared too. 


	9. Confronting

NOTE - okay. Sorry I'm making Draco so mean, for all of you (*cough* hypothia *cough*) who don't think he should be. I promise he'll come around, but I just don't want to make him all sensitive without a good fight. Wouldn't be in character.  
  
----------------------  
  
  
  
By Monday, the clouds had returned and Hogwarts was once again cast into a marvelously gloomy winter storm. It was the beginning of December already, yet the snow had not come. . . 'only this delightful misty rain,' thought Alice as she walked silently to breakfast. She'd remained rather withdrawn all weekend, although not disconnected. She had been able to think of nothing but Seamus. Seamus, and what he had said to her a while back, when she had told him that it wasn't like her to run off into the woods with random boys. She was a Malfoy - and she wasn't LIKE that. "Like WHAT?" he had asked. "Like anything other than what your family TELLS you you are?!" His words still burned fresh in her mind. He said it so harshly, and it still hurt, but she knew it was true. She was a slave to her father, as was Draco. But the sad thing about Draco was that he accepted it. . . and he would probably grow up to be just like his dad - an elitist monster who stepped all over other people as long as it meant he'd get his way.  
  
But despite all she had to be worried about, Alice was unusually lighthearted. She'd chosen to walk to the Great Hall alone today, so that she'd be able to enjoy the peaceful solitude - the light rain collecting in her hair, the sound her boots made as they hit wet cobblestone, the delicious gray sky. . . life was good. Seamus would save her from her predetermined fate; she knew he had the will and the dedication. She only doubted herself. . .  
  
She sat down next to Claire (on the other side of whom sat Hypothia, and then Draco. They were holding hands, as Alice would have regarded as normal had she not been in denial of their relationship until then). She was suddenly struck by a sharp jolt of fear, like a spear thrust into her stomach. What if Hypothia chose Draco over her, if the time came to choose sides. What if she lost a friend and a brother all over this. . . this silly Irish boy?  
  
She shook the thought from her head, shocked and appalled that she even had it in her to think such things about Seamus, still a little scared. She glanced over her shoulder at the Gryffindor table. Seamus was laughing about something with Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom. His hair was still that luscious shade of blue, and for some reason this put Alice's troubled soul at ease. She sighed contentedly and turned to her pancakes, pushing them around in the syrup with her fork and taking a few bites. She wasn't all that hungry this morning.  
  
Suddenly a figure sat down to her right. She looked up expecting to see Hypothia or Caire or Seamus or ANYONE but. . . Draco. But there he was, in all his platinum blond glory, smiling at her with twinkling silver eyes. "Haven't seen you all weekend, sis! You haven't been AVOIDING me for some silly reason, have you?"  
  
"I wish you wouldn't call me that" she said angrily, refusing to look at him, still hunched over the table poking around in her pancakes. Her words had sounded like boiling oil thrown in one's face. They seemed unnecessarily harsh even to her, but he deserved them. . . She didn't know how to feel toward him right now. She didn't want to jump to conclusions, but he was the symbol of everything she wanted to be rid of, all the silly family doctrines that plagued her life - everything that Seamus promised sanctuary from.  
  
"Aww, what's the matter sis?" he asked with feigned, patronizing concern. "You don't still have some of that venom in you from your little 'accident', do you?" he asked, reaching in front of her and poking her sore, bandaged shoulder.  
  
She could take no more. She stood up, boiling over with emotions. As she stood up, her fork crashed to the floor, clattering under the table. "Jesus FUCKING Christ! I cannot take one more fucking MINUTE of your BULLSHIT!" she screamed at him as his disgusting grin widened even further. She wanted to rip it off his face and force him to eat it. . . As she strode briskly toward the doors, the tears began to well up and she became aware of the deafening silence that had spread through the room like chicken pox in a muggle preschool. She felt as if one more second of it would drive her insane. By now Draco was probably being congratulated by his little friends, Crabbe and Goyle for whatever he had hoped to accomplish. She broke into a run, throwing open the heavy doors as if they were plywood, and ran blindly wherever her legs would take her - she didn't care as long as it was somewhere far away. She ran until she could no longer feel her heart beating in her chest, until her legs froze and she collapsed into the wet grass. Looking out across the field sideways from the ground, it was like looking upon a dense tropical forest. She turned her head and stared up at the sky, watching the raindrops fall, not blinking when they hit her eyes, feeling them splash on her face and in her hair, opening her mouth to allow then to nourish her dry throat. Once her heartbeats had slowed and equalized, she stood up slowly, a little dizzy, and straightened herself out. She wiped the tears from her eyes and fanned them with her hands, trying to diminish the red puffiness. 'I probably look like shit,' she thought, running her fingers through her hair.  
  
"Alice!" She heard a voice behind her and turned to see Seamus running in her direction, a few hundred feet away. They met like fire and water, consuming one another and becoming one entity. She threw her arms around his neck as his found their place around her waist. She buried her face in his shoulder; she felt the tears coming again and knew that there was nothing she could do to stop them. She sobbed uncontrollably as he stroked her hair, wishing he could do more - wishing he knew some way to give her endless happiness; she didn't deserve to suffer like this.  
  
Finally her tears dried up as they always did and she did what she could to compose herself, a little embarrassed of him seeing her face. By then, they were sitting on the grass, soaked through their clothes, but that didn't matter because they were together. Seamus watched her preen herself - it was all so unnecessary. She was beautiful no matter what she did. Why all the fuss? He extended her arm and lifted her chin up with his finger, forcing her to look at him.  
  
"I look like shit, huh. . ." she said, pulling away to look down at the ground.  
  
He grabbed her head with both of his hands and kissed her forehead, looked into her eyes and said "You're beautiful", his eye contact unwavering.  
  
A million thoughts clouded her mind. She'd heard that from too many guys to be able to take him seriously - all in efforts to win her over like a carnival prize. But Seamus was different. She KNEW he was. Or was she just becoming weak? Was she giving in like she had with all the others, only to be thrown away like she had been so many times before? No. Seamus WAS different.  
  
"I love you," she whispered, speaking these words for the first time in her life without doubt, without expecting anything in return, without feeling as if she was foolishly exposing herself.  
  
He hugged her passionately, responding, "I love you too, Alice."  
  
  
  
----------------  
  
*SEAMUS REFERENCE OF THE DAY: "Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron"  
  
-book 2  
  
*final note: until now Alice has been an exact copy of me (she's supposed to be me, actually), but that whole last part is about problems I WISH I had, although the opinions pretty much match mine. 


End file.
